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Even as the White House has backed off on a few of its deadlines
for administering the Affordable Care Act, the Obama
Administration is staying the course on its efforts to
transition paper files to electronic health records in
doctor's offices.

President Barack Obama met with several
chief executives of health-care technology companies,
government leaders and nonprofit public-service organizations
on Monday for a conversation on how technology, big data and
innovation can be used to bring down the costs and improve the
quality of health care in the U.S., according to a statement
from the White House.

The Obama Administration says it has met and exceeded its goal to
have 50 percent of doctor's offices and 80 percent of hospitals
using electronic records by the end of the year.

The meeting included Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, and entrepreneurs ChenMed CEO
Chris Chen and iTriage CEO Peter Hudson, who are considered on
the forefront of technological advancement in the health-care
industry.

ChenMed is a Miami Gardens, Fla.-based
medical, consulting and technology company focused on
improving care for seniors. Denver, Colo.-based iTriage developed a health-care
application for smartphones and tablets, which helps consumers
identify their symptoms, locate appropriate care and book an
appointment. The iTriage application was founded by two
emergency medicine physicians and has been downloaded 9.5
million times.

Obama praised the work iTriage has done in a speech Monday from the White House on ways
private-sector entrepreneurs have made government bureaucratic
processes more efficient. "As anyone knows, dealing with the
federal government is not always high-technology, and it's not
always user-friendly," Obama says. For his second term, he's
asked his Cabinet to establish a management agenda that will
utilize entrepreneurial innovations and technologies more
aggressively than in the past.

"We're going to continue to adopt good ideas from the private
sector," Obama says. "And I'm going to be asking more people
around the country -- more inventors and entrepreneurs and
visionaries -- to sign up to serve. We've got to have the
brightest minds to help solve our biggest challenges."